[End of feature]

As one local guide, , put it: “You don’t visit Idrisi. You return to it. Like a dream you forgot you had.” If you go, walk softly. The forest is watching.

By [Author Name]

Drive from Palermo (1.5 hours) to Petralia Soprana. Park at the Rifugio Marini.

Available through Madonie Trekking (€35/person, includes naturalist guide).

The second part of the name, Selva (Italian for “jungle” or “wild forest”), reflects the impenetrable nature of the woodland. Locals still say: “Entri nella Idrisi, e il mondo fuori scompare” – “You enter Idrisi, and the outside world disappears.” Located between 1,000 and 1,600 meters above sea level, Idrisi Selva is a temperate rainforest – a rare ecosystem in the Mediterranean. While much of Sicily is sun-scorched and dry, this forest receives over 1,400 mm of rainfall annually, thanks to orographic lift from warm Tyrrhenian winds hitting the steep Madonie peaks.